Even Exxon (EXXON!) Thinks Trump’s Climate Change Policy Is Terrible

We're living in a time of upsets. The Cleveland Cavaliers are defending NBA champions. The Chicago Cubs are defending World Series champions. Donald Trump is somehow president. Up is down. Left is right. Zack Snyder will probably somehow win an Oscar for Justice League.

What's that? You think that last one sounds a little farfetched? Well, get a load of this story. So, as you may have seen, Donald Trump has waged an all-out war on the government's ability to fight global warming, most recently signing an executive order to reverse the plans put forward by Barack Obama to ensure the U.S. did its part to cut planet-warming emissions.

Mr. Trump made clear that the United States had no intention of
meeting the commitments that his predecessor had made to curb
planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution, turning denials of climate
change into national policy.

At a ceremony, Mr. Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency
to start the complex and lengthy legal process of withdrawing and
rewriting the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have closed
hundreds of coal-fired power plants, frozen construction of new plants
and replaced them with vast new wind and solar farms.

This decision all but guarantees that the U.S. will be unable to meet its commitments laid out in the Paris Agreement. This is, of course, short-sighted and stupid. Sure, maybe allowing coal-fired plants to stay open saves some jobs now, but there will be no jobs when the planet is an unlivable hellscape right out of Mad Max: Fury Road. And it's not just lefty tree-huggers like me who think this is foolish. According to CNN, ExxonMobil, an oil giant and the same company that provided us with our current Secretary of State, thinks Trump's "climate change is a hoax" policies are wrongheaded and that the Paris Agreement is important and worth embracing.

America's biggest oil company told the White House it believes the
Paris agreement is an "effective framework for addressing the risks of
climate change" and the U.S. should remain a party to it.

....

"We welcomed the Paris Agreement when it was announced in December
2015, and again when it came into force in November 2016. We have
reiterated our support on several occasions," Peter Trelenberg,
Exxon's environmental policy and planning manager, wrote to the White
House.

Last month Exxon CEO Darren Woods, who replaced Rex Tillerson when he
left to become Trump's secretary of state, wrote a blog post saying
the company is "encouraged" that the Paris agreement creates a
framework for "all countries" to address rising emissions.

And so obviously the White House is going to reconsider, right? Oh, no. That phrasing feels like a setup for something terrible...

A supervisor at the Energy Department's international climate office
told staff this week not to use the phrases "climate change,"
"emissions reduction" or "Paris Agreement" in written memos, briefings
or other written communication, sources have told POLITICO.

They banned the use of the term "climate change." So we have a giant oil company pleading for the government to fight climate change and the government obstinately ignoring them. This proves two things. We're all screwed, and Zack Snyder is probably going to somehow win an Oscar.